This invention relates generally to the field of anti-smoking products or devices, and more particularly to an article for assisting persons to quit smoking and method for same.
Cigarette smokers who wish to break their habit currently have two choices: they can quit all at once, or they can taper their consumption downward over a period of time. Since nicotine is powerfully addictive, neither approach is easy.
Quitting all at once ("cold turkey") severely disrupts the individual's brain chemistry. He or she is likely to experience intense cravings for tobacco, and may also suffer such unpleasant effects as nausea, depression, insomnia, constipation or diarrhea, irritability, muscle aches, headache and difficulty concentrating. But since nicotine is water-soluble and is readily flushed from the body, the strictly chemical phase of nicotine addiction passes within a few days or weeks.
Nevertheless, relapse is distressingly common, even among individuals whose systems have been clear of nicotine for months. This is because cigarette addiction is not merely a chemical issue: it is a complex behavior pattern that includes automatic, unconscious, habitual and psychological components as well. A sudden quit may not give the smoker time to deal with such issues. And yet, in spite of these drawbacks, the cold turkey quit (often backed up by medication) remains the method of choice for most cessation programs.
One might reasonably ask why the smoker wouldn't choose to taper cigarette consumption downward over a period of time in order to give the body a chance to adjust to a more gradual withdrawal of nicotine. Success by tapering requires the individual to limit his or her consumption to a specific number of cigarettes per day, and to decrease that number steadily and systematically over a period of weeks or even months. Sustaining this kind of long-term effort in the turbulent real world is difficult under any circumstances. It is especially difficult if access to cigarettes is open-ended and uncontrolled.
Accordingly, inventive minds have generated a number of U.S. patents for devices that are designed to assist the quitting smoker to pace consumption. U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,719, for example, discloses a cigarette case which includes a counting mechanism that keeps track of and displays the number of times the case has been opened in order to remove a cigarette. For purposes of comparison, it also displays the number of times the case was accessed the previous day.
A number of other patents have been granted for cigarette cases that are equipped with timers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,855, for example, discloses a cigarette case with a rotating mechanism inside. At predetermined intervals, the mechanism brings another cigarette to a position where it may be removed through an opening in the case, thus restricting the individual's freedom to smoke at will. U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,472 uses a movable belt to achieve the same purpose.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,431 discloses a cigarette case that, at the time of loading, allows the user to set a timing interval. After this interval has elapsed, the case emits a pleasing beeping sound to indicate that it is permissible for the user to open the cover of the case and remove a cigarette. The elapsed time is displayed at all times. If the case is opened prematurely, a loud, irritating alarm results. In an alternative embodiment, the cigarette case cannot be opened at all until the preset time has elapsed. A number of other patents disclose devices that also employ timer-controlled locking mechanisms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,681 discloses a cigarette dispenser that "waits" for a preset time interval to pass after the latch is activated. This permits the user to reconsider the decision to smoke and to allow the initial urge for a cigarette to subside. If the dispenser is opened prior to the expiration of the predetermined time interval, as revealed by a visual signal, an embarrassing sound results. Programmable control means are provided for regulating cigarette access times, cigarette puffing delays, etc., as a function of the individual user's smoking pattern.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,269,203 discloses a cigarette case with a lower reservoir containing an odorous substance and a series of hollow needles that extend upward into the interior of the case. When a pack of cigarettes is pushed down into the case, the needles penetrate some of the cigarettes in the pack, allowing the odorous substance to taint them.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,033 discloses a battery-powered cigarette case with a lid controlled by a releasable latch. On actuation of the latch, the device sounds an alarm and then applies a faradic shock to the user.
In assessing these inventions, one might well ask, "What are the minimum requirements for a device and method that can truly assist a smoker to quit by means of the tapering method?" At a minimum, the smoker must remember that tapering is a rationing process and so must be kept totally and unambiguously aware at all times of the number of cigarettes that are allowed for the day; the number that have been smoked so far during the day; and the number that remain and must last until bedtime. Without such knowledge, any tapering process becomes vague, murky and inconclusive, and it is the quitting attempt itself that tapers away, rather than the cigarette habit.
Judged by this standard, all of the devices just described suffer certain deficiencies, as further outlined. A cigarette case that merely tracks and displays daily cigarette consumption imposes no real discipline on any given day's consumption, and could end up merely documenting the failure of the individual's efforts to quit.
In regard to a timer-equipped cigarette case that prevents access until another cigarette is permissible and makes a noise if opened ahead of schedule, research has shown that people generally do not smoke at a steady rate throughout the day. Thus it is entirely likely that the individual might not feel like smoking at some of the times indicated by the device, and may feel uncomfortable cravings at others. In addition, the smoker might not always be in a situation where smoking is possible at the times indicated by the timing device. For example, smokers have been known to sit in a parking lot for ten minutes while waiting for their next allotted cigarette, rather than going about their normal routines. Rigid, externally-imposed smoking schedules can thus lead to inconvenience, frustration, and abandonment of the cessation effort.
A programmable, user-interactive cigarette case is subject to the same deficiencies as mentioned for other devices relying on timers, with the additional disadvantage that a substantial proportion of the potential users will be unable to understand and practice the programming techniques involved. Additionally, all cigarette cases with built-in motors, counting devices and/or timers require fairly complicated manufacturing processes to produce, so that the cost to the user is relatively high.
A cigarette case that renders a random selection of cigarettes distasteful by tainting them with a foul-smelling substance could prompt the user who is counting on a nicotine hit to discard the unpleasant cigarettes and smoke the untainted ones instead. And a cigarette case that relies on an electric shock to deter the user might deliver either a pinprick so weak that its deterrent effect would be minimal, or a jolt so strong that the smoker would be deterred from using the device at all.
In sum, none of these devices meet the minimum requirements outlined above. It is little wonder that the cold turkey approach to smoking cessation has gained favor at the expense of the steady taper.
In contrast, the device and method that are the subject of this application were designed to meet and exceed those minimum requirements. They allow the smoker first to determine his or her actual daily cigarette consumption, and then to carry only that number of cigarettes each day. The individual always knows how many cigarettes are allowed for the day and has a clear view of how many cigarettes have been used and how many remain. Within the constraints of the rigidly controlled daily allotment, he or she is free to smoke according to whatever schedule is most convenient and comfortable. Bodily nicotine levels fall very gradually, thus sparing the user the torments reported by smokers who attempt to quit all at once. Additionally, the individual can slowly but progressively decrease the daily cigarette allotment as the tapering process continues, at whatever pace he or she finds most appropriate.
This device and method put the responsibility for cessation squarely on the smoker, where it belongs, and not on a timer or silicon chip. The individual develops and progressively strengthens his or her ability to ration the daily allotment so that the cigarettes do not run out before bedtime. The various habitual, automatic and unconscious behaviors that are part of the individual's addiction inevitably become apparent as the tapering process continues, and the person is able to linger at any given daily consumption level for as long as it takes to deal with them. Then he or she ratchets the daily ration downward another notch.
This invention also provides a means by which the user can attach motivational aids like photographs and written materials to the cigarette case in such a way that they will be visible each time the case is accessed. Thus a father, in order to help keep his quit program on course, might attach to one side of the cigarette case a picture of his wife and children, and to the other a signed pledge to quit.
All of this is accomplished by means of a device that is easy to understand and to use, that has no moving or electronic parts, and that can be mass produced easily and at low cost using readily-available machinery.